EasyJet Removing Seats From Planes Due To Staff Shortage

I'm surprised they removed the last row and not some row in the middle that would immediately allow them to sell the row behind as "super-legroom" row.

Logistics. easy to remove and reinstall without damaging internals.

Exactly. Remove row 6 and then sell shift the first five rows and sell them as 'extra legroom seats'

which law requires 1 FA per 50pax?

Agree with Ben, pretty weird setup to begin with. Are they really at 98%-100% load that often to justify an extra attendant and extra weight vs. permanently having slightly less seats but with one less attendant, less weight and potentially "premium" revenue for extra space?

Unsure if similar exists elsewhere, but it's an EU Regulation, more specifically EU Commission Regulation No 965/2012.

"
Subpart CC

Section 1:

ORO.CC.100 Number and composition of cabin crew

(a) The number and composition of cabin crew shall be determined in accordance with 7.a of Annex IV to Regulation (EC) No 216/2008, taking into account operational factors or circumstances of the particular flight to be operated. At least one cabin crew member shall be assigned for the operation of aircraft with an MOPSC of more than 19 when carrying one or more passenger(s).

(b) For the purpose of complying with (a), the minimum number of cabin crew shall be the greater of the following:

(...)

(3) one cabin crew member for every 50, or fraction of 50, passenger seats installed on the same deck of the aircraft to be operated.
"

Most of JetBlue’s A320s have been
re-configured to 162 seats.

Thanks for restating exactly what the post said

lmao, question meant to get input from somebody more knowledgeable on the subject (of which there are plenty here). get a life, or a dog.

It's in the FAA's FARs, Part 121, too. (And maybe/probably part 135?)

Some of us west coast old-timers remember when AirCal reduced the number of seats on its 737-200s assigned to the SFO-LAX shuttle to 100 seats to reduce the number of FAs to 2. They then marketed the increased space as executive shuttle.

There are a few reasons why Easyjet staffs with 4 crew normally

- can sometimes sell the 6 seats - these last seats would go for high $$ and cover FA pay on multiple flights
- up until recently they operated A320 and A319. Having all flights crewed with 4 x FA meant that it was very simple to swap between A319 and A320, either in response to demand (especially at a big base like Gatwick) or at the last minute without a crew headache. A little different now they're operating some A321s, but still overall it keeps things as simple as possible. I suspect this is potentially why it's only the UK A319s, the Europe flights are sometimes relatively complicated "W" / triangle routings / downroute swaps and if there are aircraft swaps downroute it'd be quite a big problem if only 3 crew turn up to take over an A320!
- they can run 2 x trollies with 2 crew each. This allows more inflight sales to be completed on a busy flight. Things like hot items, hot water refills etc need to be collected from the galley. I suspect they'll only be able to have 1 trolley out on these flights as I'm not sure they'll be able to have a single crew running a trolley and leave it unattended. Perhaps the FA at the rear will do some service by hand.

I do believe though that originally they thought the CAA would give them an exemption to run the A319 with 156 seats but this didn't happen

Can some provide more information on this statement:

the pilot scope clause, which limits how many regional jets can be flying with 66+ seats.

Or remove 6 middle seats in the front of the aircraft and sell seats in those rows as 'business class'.

Makes absolute sense… however, in typical easyJet style, they didn’t think about passenger comfort. They could have removed the second last row allowing for extra ancillary revenue marketing the back row as extra leg room. A little shuffle and it would be a revenue generating fix. Instead, they’ve got a useless gap at the back of the cabin.